Archive | March, 2007

My contribution to the Revolting Sofa blog has just been posted. The Revolting Sofa blog juxtaposes text inspired by photos of hideous sofas discovered on Craigslist. James, the instigator of this online log of grotesques, sent this note to me: “Let the piece resonate with the photo, rather than referring directly to what the viewer can already see in the photo.” Here is my contribution, and here is the ongoing catalogue of yesterday’s fashionable settee alongside current text.

After several years of lamenting slow death throes of book coverage in The Stranger and thinking the day’s of Matthew Stadler’s and Traci Vogel’s books section would remain locked in nostalgia, memories of a time when I had to write “19” before the year, this week sees what I hope is a prolonged move toward making the best of two tabloid sized pages. Christopher Frizzelle’s book column this week was actually a close approximation of a thee dot column with news. Hey, Clear Cut Press isn’t dead. That’s good news. Miranda July is coming to Seattle. There were four very short reviews and a one longer (but small) review. After years of starvation in alt-press books coverage in Seattle this seems like a feast. I’m actually looking forward to next weeks issue already.

Novella Carpenter has another story about her skills at animal husbandary on Salon.com: Buzz Kill.“Preparing my back-porch beehive is my favorite rite of spring, but this year my flock mysteriously went missing. I’ll miss more than just the honey.”

The University of Arizona Press has just released Kathleen Alcala’s first collection of essays, The Desert Remembers My Name Check out her web site for a list of upcoming readings. Publishers Weekly writes, “Alcalá displays an intellectual curiosity that has led her to think and write creatively about less personal matters. Her essay on the Opata peoples of Mexico is fascinating, and in another essay, she masterfully blends the harrowing experience of Andrea Yates, who drowned her five young children, with the mythic stories of Mexican folklore.”

They will read this spring in May (May 17, 24, 31), appear in the Volume 11 of the Jack Straw Anthology. These events will include music. Dennis Driscoll is playing! They will also include these excellent writers. Check out Jack Straw for more info.

My father recalls visiting his family — the Rooneys — in the 1960s and to buy store bought bread was still an event. I image it was difficult to control homemade bread. It is difficult now when even homemade bread is manufactured with a machine, so that what you are getting isnt homemade by their standards but instead a freshly made machine made bread.

From Esther: “Dear Friends and Supporters of it’s About Time:
The monthly schedule is now on line. Since it is too late to announce in newspapers this month, please forward to your friends and post at libraries, bookstores etc. Thanks, Esther

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I write short stories, novels, flowcharts, code, and typos. Some of my books are about rural Washington State. I grew up in the Snoqualmie Valley in the seventies and eighties. This is my blog. More info.